Trish Costello is the founder and C.E.O. of Portfolia, a women-focused investment platform that is fueling health care innovations aimed at improving women’s lives.

This article is part of a Women and Leadership special report highlighting women who are charting new pathways and fighting for opportunities for women and others.

Last year, $178 billion in venture capital was invested in U.S. companies, but only 19 percent of those investment decisions were made by women, according to the capital markets database Pitchbook.

Just two percent of that funding went to companies founded by women. This imbalance — which has persisted for decades — is what motivated Trish Costello to start Portfolia in 2014, a venture capital investment platform geared toward women and one of the first venture firms in the U.S. to focus on women’s health. That year, only six percent of decision makers at venture capital firms were women.

Ms. Costello was part of

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